Quick question...since canals are on average 4 ft deep in the centre, how do people drown in canals?

[Pikecatcher]

Read about this in the paper many times and it's always confused me. How does that happen exactly? 

 

If you stand up, the water would come to about your waist or chest.

Edited May 14 by Pikecatcher

[Alan de Enfield]

40 minutes ago, Pikecatcher said:

Read about this in the paper many times and it's always confused me. How does that happen exactly? 

 

If you stand up, the water would come to about your waist or chest.

 

If you are drunk, bang your head as you fall in, have a heart attack, or ........................ 

Then you probably are unable to stand up.

 

The canals are generally less than 3 feet deep, but, you can drown in 6" of water.

[Gybe Ho]

I reckon 50% of narrowboaters are aged over 60 and at this age many will be coping with what doctors call "co-morbities" or in other words multiple ongoing medical conditions that undermine general health. When such a person falls into cold canal water weighed down with cold wealther clothing, incapacition occurs within a few minutes.

 

It is also worth noting that a canal bottom is often comprised of 6" of gooey soft mud and clay, so a victim falling into a canal is not going emerge like a biblical prophet who can walk on water.

[jake_crew]

Its usually what you bang your head on as you go in.  Either the boat or the coping stones knock you out.

[IanM]

Seems it's a common question on forums today.

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=&t=2142306

 

[Alan de Enfield]

 

So a newbies 1st post on that Piston-heads' forum AND on this forum -and the question is identical.

 

If it walks like  duck and sounds like a duck its probably "Artificial Ignorance"

[Quattrodave]

You can drown in a puddle!! My guess cold shock, injury or exhaustion would be a big factor 🤷‍♂️

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

If you are drunk, bang your head as you fall in, have a heart attack, or ........................ 

Then you probably are unable to stand up.

 

The canals are generally less than 3 feet deep, but, you can drown in 6" of water.

This is the SU

 

[Pikecatcher]

18 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

You can drown in a puddle!! My guess cold shock, injury or exhaustion would be a big factor 🤷‍♂️

I know that. I was talking about the logic of it, like why don't they just stand up.

[IanD]

37 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

This is the SU

 

 

IIRC my BIL was on a boating holiday with his mates many years ago (1980s?) when one of them fell in and drowned -- at night, and drink may have been taken. It was on one of the canals in the Midlands where subsidence (salt or coal mining?) meant the banks were raised and the canal got deeper over time, so too deep to stand up in... 😞 

[1st ade]

23 minutes ago, Pikecatcher said:

I know that. I was talking about the logic of it, like why don't they just stand up.

With cold water shock; logic does not enter into it - you're body's first (and only) response is "I'm drowning, I can't breathe" - there is no second response...

[system 4-50]

What is the deepest point on the canal (not rivers, sea) system?  Just curious, I'm not planning on drowning.

[Tony Brooks]

3 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

What is the deepest point on the canal (not rivers, sea) system?  Just curious, I'm not planning on drowning.

 

No idea, but judging by the size of the piling on some of the Trent & Mersey canal subsidence must have made it very deep indeed.

[Russ T]

6 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

What is the deepest point on the canal (not rivers, sea) system?  Just curious, I'm not planning on drowning.

A lock

[Tony Brooks]

1 minute ago, Russ T said:

A lock

 

True, anyone know the drop of Bath Deep Lock? I am sure I have been through another that looked equally deep - Just looked it up. When full it has to be over 20ft deep, probably around 23 ft.

[IanD]

14 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

No idea, but judging by the size of the piling on some of the Trent & Mersey canal subsidence must have made it very deep indeed.

I think that's where the death I referred to above happened.

[tree monkey]

I've been in (voluntarily) the Walsall and it was up to my chin and that was standing on a shopping trolley.

 

It was disturbingly warm, swimming pool warm

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, system 4-50 said:

What is the deepest point on the canal (not rivers, sea) system?  Just curious, I'm not planning on drowning.

Tuel Lock is pretty deep, I always wear my lifejacket going through there. Though many canals may be shallow, there can be areas where the soft silt has been scoured by use of the prop, generally near locks.

Obviously alcohol can be a factor, particularly in landlubbers rather than boaters.

Falling in accidentally will often lead to disorientation, and  if the water is cold, it can create a shock. Inhalation of canal water must be both unexpected and unpleasant. I think the natural response is to swim to prevent drowning, only once established will anyone try to test the depth.

Edited May 14 by LadyG

[bizzard]

Playing mobile phones.  Some folk can't stay still whilst on the phone, they wander about willy nilly.  A while ago one of our moorers did this and walked into our Southmill lock. He climbed out alright but the phone drowned.

[Russ T]

6 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Playing mobile phones.  Some folk can't stay still whilst on the phone, they wander about willy nilly.  A while ago one of our moorers did this and walked into our Southmill lock. He climbed out alright but the phone drowned.

He would probably benefit from an eye-phone

[Wafi]

48 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

What is the deepest point on the canal (not rivers, sea) system?  Just curious, I'm not planning on drowning.

Is there anywhere on the system (excluding rivers) that's been made navigable by damming a valley (like a miniature Gatun Lake)?

 

Some marinas are surrounded by embankments (I'm thinking of Ventnor, but there are presumably plenty of others), and those embankments appear to have been constructed in part by digging out the basin. They're certainly a lot deeper than required for navigation, though I don't know whether they'd rival a deep lock.

[Hudds Lad]

Once passed a chap walking/wading up the canal near Chirk marina, think he was dressed like a roman centurion, and continued into the entrance of the marina. He was mid-chest deep (no idea how tall he was) and making reasonable progress. I'm assuming alcohol was involved, i was too taken aback to say anything but hello as we cruised by, and he responded in kind.

[Wafi]

4 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Once passed a chap walking/wading up the canal near Chirk marina, think he was dressed like a roman centurion, and continued into the entrance of the marina. He was mid-chest deep (no idea how tall he was) and making reasonable progress. I'm assuming alcohol was involved, i was too taken aback to say anything but hello as we cruised by, and he responded in kind.

Maybe he'd given up trying to get his deep draft boat through the tunnel against the current, and decided it would be easier to get out and walk.

[LadyG]

19 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Playing mobile phones.  Some folk can't stay still whilst on the phone, they wander about willy nilly.  A while ago one of our moorers did this and walked into our Southmill lock. He climbed out alright but the phone drowned.

I had an incident where two lads ran along my gunwales and both fell in when they ran out of gunwale. One threw his phone on to the bank, I picked it up, not with any particular intent, but he jumped out the canal quick enough.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, IanD said:

 

IIRC my BIL was on a boating holiday with his mates many years ago (1980s?) when one of them fell in and drowned -- at night, and drink may have been taken. It was on one of the canals in the Midlands where subsidence (salt or coal mining?) meant the banks were raised and the canal got deeper over time, so too deep to stand up in... 😞 

 

Six year ago a cyclist hit the bridge adjacent to my garden and a neighbour and myself rescued him.

 

I reported it here at the time.

 

What surprised me was the depth of the canal under the bridge. It was almost six feet deep, whereas by my garden close to the bridge it is only about one foot deep.

 

As you say, it is because of coal mining subsidence, which has resulted in the banks being raised, such that this bridge is probably the lowest on the Coventry canal.